Balance

Balance is my "One Word" for the year. Balance in my life; balancing my family, my ministry, my art...my time! I've been struggling a bit to find balance, but I'm still working toward it and I think maybe I'm getting a bit closer. Having two young children (6 years and 11 months) really makes this challenging. I have a tendency to focus on them and not allow myself any time at all. Of course meeting the needs of my husband and children is very important, but I've realized when I make time for me (usually time for creating, reading or just relaxing) I'm a much better wife and mommy. So, I'll keep working on it! I'd love to hear some of your ideas on how you balance life and fit in "you" time, especially how you carve out time to create your art!!

One thing I have really found helpful is taking online art classes. They not only stretch me and allow me to grow as an artist, but they are also incredibly inspiring, motivating and force me to make time to create. I've been taking my dear friend, Mystele's, amazing Gut Art class. Wow, so creatively transforming! Mystele is one of the most creative and innovative people I've ever met and she is truly gifted as a teacher. Check out her community and dive into some creative loveliness!! :) I've been working in my Gut Art Book, pushing myself to really play as an artist and learn/discover more about my inner creative voice. Here are a few things I've had fun with:

This is the unfinished cover of my Gut Art Book. I created it out of recycled cardboard materials, mostly junk mail fliers and food boxes (like cereal, crackers, etc.). I layered collage elements and paint along with some stamping. I plan to go back and add a title and some other fun embellishments to finish it off.


My Gut Art book is basically an art journal, an area for me to play and not worry about the result. It has been very freeing to try new things and take chances!






This is a background I created on one of my book pages. It turned into this:





Mystele has this amazing technique of "pulling" art out of your background. Through the shapes, lines and colors in my background I was able to "pull out" this figure. It is a very cool experience to create an image of something from the elements that were placed before it. I've really loved learning this technique!


Below is another background page ready and waiting for some creating to happen. To make this page I glued several pages from an old phone book together, then used acrylic paint and water soluble pastels to cover it.

I'll share a few more peeks into my Gut Art book soon!

Happy Creating!!

Jennifer

My One Word

It is hard to believe we have already flown through January! This year is off to a quick start and as usual I'm running to catch up! I always love the beginning of a new year. There is a unique feeling that comes with it...that of anticipation, renewal, new beginnings and fresh starts. I always feel like I want to wipe the slate clean and start fresh! It is such a great time to take inventory and set goals.

One thing I really enjoy doing at the start of each year is picking my "One Word" for the year. I first heard of this concept through Ali Edwards' wonderful blog three years ago. My word for 2008 was "Create" and that was the year I committed myself to rediscovering my art. Last year I chose "Simplify" due to the big changes our family would be experiencing as we prepared for the arrival of our second child and I begun working toward my newly discovered desire to begin selling my artwork. I feel like I did well with Simplify; I focused on a few major areas such as:

• my home where I decluttered, purged, rearranged and tried to set up more simple systems and routines. Below are a few pictures of one of my biggest projects last year, my newly redone studio area.

I purchased new bookshelves and desk and purged a lot of supplies. I keep all of my art supplies here, except for my paints which I currently have in the laundry room off our kitchen. I do all of my painting in the kitchen (near a sink and where there is no carpet). That empty space on the wall above the desk is waiting for a painting that I recently finished. I'll share soon! :)

The bookshelves hold a lot of my scrapbooking supplies, stamps, art books, and albums. I keep my canvases, collage items, and sketch pads in the white cubes. Our kitties like it in here as well! That is Chloe catching a quick nap.

• my life by doing my best to say "no" when I really need to focus on other things. There are so many wonderful opportunities out there and different ways to spend my time. I've learned that it is okay to serve or help in some areas, but I don't have to, nor can I do everything!


• my art by reorganizing and purging my supplies. I'm trying my best to buy only what I need rather than "collecting" art supplies; they can be so addictive!!
  

• my ministry by stepping down from some much loved responsibilities.
  

I made a lot of headway...but still continue to look for ways to simplify this busy life even more so I can concentrate on and make time for the things most important to me!

So, my One Word for 2010...oh, it is a good one! One that I need a lot of work on! I'll share in my next post, but in the meantime, do you have a special One Word that you are focusing on this year?!! :) I'd love to hear all about it!

December...where did you go???

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and a great start to your new year! December sure got away from me. We had a wonderful Christmas, but I was even busier than I expected to be. My whole family also caught a nasty cold that slowed things down for a bit. It was my son's very first and he felt his worst on Christmas day. His first Christmas and he felt so yucky; I felt so bad for him! Aside from being sick we had a great time with family coming into town to visit, a surprise snowy white Christmas Eve, a fun visit from Santa, lots of yummy food and special time together celebrating the birth of our Savior, our blessings and sweet family traditions.

I did keep up with my December Daily Album, although I'm not quite finished with it yet. I'd planned to print pictures and post them along the way, but my printer wouldn't cooperate. I finally gave up and just got all of them printed at the same time last week. I hope to sit down and finish it up soon.

This week I need to finish getting the Christmas decor packed up and put away. Do you ever wonder what to do with all of the Christmas Cards you get from dear friends and family? Ali Edwards has a great post about punching out parts of your cards and making a layout with all of them. I have a Christmas Album that I include my family's Christmas photo card and newsletter in along with that season's pictures. I'm thinking I may try this and stick it in as a closing page for each year.

I found another idea for storing your holiday cards in the book Simple Scrapbooks: 25 Fun and Meaningful Memory Books You Can Make in a Weekend by Stacy Julian. Stacy created an entire album for her holiday cards. She keeps it simple and has a section for each year. Within each section she has a place for her family photo and card from that year, a photo pocket to easily store photos she received from family and friends, and a few pages for favorite cards. She also suggests keeping "Letters to Santa" and a collection of Christmas stamps in this album. Cute ideas!!

What do you do with your Christmas cards each year?

My Favorite Time of the Year

I'm so excited! I know Thanksgiving hasn't arrived yet, but the holidays are just around the corner and I'm already enjoying the early preparation in anticipation of what is to come! I'm big on nurturing special family memories and traditions and since I'm an artist and scrapbooker I love creating during this season! I've been listening to Christmas music and getting a head start on my holiday planning and projects! I find that the earlier I start the more I can relax and enjoy this time of the year. Here are several fun ideas and helpful links that you may enjoy as well!

• The Christmas Station: 103.7 Lite FM: 24 hour holiday music. If you are in the Dallas/Fort Worth area you can listen on the radio. If not, you can listen online.


• OrganizedChristmas.com - Simplify Your Holidays and Celebrate the Season: I found this to be a very helpful website that has everything you need to easily organize for the holidays and allow your family to enjoy them with less stress and more time for what is most important during the season. You'll find great holiday plans you can follow, wonderful articles, and creative ideas. I'm setting up my Christmas planner and following the Christmas Countdown plan. This plan officially started the last week of October, but you can jump in at any time and get going. Adapt it and make it work for your needs!


• December Daily: Ali Edwards' holiday mini album project. I am so in love with the idea of this! December Daily is a mini album you create the foundation of before the holidays and then add to each day of December until Christmas. It is a mini journal/scrapbook that documents the special times you have throughout the season. This isn't meant to be a stressful, "how in the world can I get this done?", project. It needs to be a fun, stress reducing, holiday activity that allows you to capture and remember the wonderful traditions, activities, and yes, even mundane, everyday happenings during the month. It will be so fun to look back through the albums each year at Christmas and remember the holidays before. I've been enjoying working on my pages for the album, doing a few at a time whenever I have a few spare moments. Here is a little sneak peak:

Go here to learn more about Ali's amazing ideas and philosophy behind the project. I hope you'll join me in the fun and share your album as well!

• Fit-To-Be-Scrapped Holiday Letters E-course at Big Picture Scrapbooking: I just enrolled in this fun, inexpensive, self paced class in which you learn new, out of the box ideas for your holiday Christmas card letter. I create an annual letter each year and I'm so excited to be inspired by others and get some new ideas, as well as get some tips on getting my letter done quickly and easily.
  

I'll be back soon to share some of our family traditions and fun ideas for kids, as well as more of my December Daily album. Have you started doing anything holiday related yet?

Happy creating!! :)

Jennifer

Autumn Has Arrived

I just love this time of the year. The temperatures are now down from the suffocating 100+ degrees they were during the summer. The leaves will soon change to their beautiful new colors and I love the amazing smells of the season; spiced cider and the smell of a cozy fire in the air are favorites. I just put out my apple and cinnamon candles! I'm also looking forward to finally being able to make some of our favorite fall dishes. Chili and homemade soup are especially tasty this time of the year! I've got the mantle decorated with a fall vine, scarecrow and pumpkins. The fall wreath is on the door and scarecrows are happily welcoming friends to our yard! All the fun fall activities are now beginning. We are looking forward to our yearly tradition of going to the pumpkin patch soon and Halloween is just around the corner.

So, Halloween is a big deal in our house! My daughter has always loved to dress up. She never watches or listens to anything without also dressing the part. Whether it is a Disney Princess or Velma from Scooby Doo, she is in character. Naturally she loves the opportunity to dress up and actually leave the house to go trick or treating. She is still deciding on who she will be this year. It ranges from Woody or Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story or Daphne from Scooby. Such fun memories to make. I'm so excited for her!

We will be carving the pumpkin soon and enjoying the yummy roasted pumpkin seeds to snack on. Here is last years Jack-o-lantern:

Lately I've been trying to catch up on my scrapbooking. Catching up is a never-ending process, but I figure I'll keep plugging away a little bit at a time. I found the cutest Haunted House album from Deja Views. I plan on starting an album for each of my children showcasing their Halloween Costume for each year. I'll just add onto it every Halloween. I hope to have some of it done to share soon!

What fun fall traditions does your family have?

Artist Love

I'm so looking forward to this:



I've always loved Georgia O'Keefe, especially her amazing flower paintings. I did a really cool project with my 1st graders when I was teaching based on her flowers. We drew enlarged flowers, cropped up close, outlined all the shapes with thick lines of white glue and then painted them in with watercolors. I wish I had a picture of one of them; they turned out so beautiful. The glue outline resisted the watercolor paint and created a cool effect.

I feel inspired! Flowers, watercolors, me....it's a date!! :) What is inspiring you these days?

Summertime Fun

Summer is flying by! Things have been super busy but we are enjoying the more laid back schedule. Here are some favorite summertime things I've recently been enjoying...

• Sleeping a little later


• Spending time with family we don't get to see as often as we'd like


• Reading - I'm totally into the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer; almost finished with Eclipse and can't wait to dive into Breaking Dawn.


• Ice Cream, smoothies, Italian Ice, frozen fruit...anything to beat the 100+ degree weather


• Spending sweet time with my kids


• Having my hubby home from his recent youth trips (camp and mission)


• Catching up on movies I haven't seen (He Just Not That into You, New in Town, Confessions of a Shopaholic)


• Tackling some projects around the house (cleaning out the garage and pantry, decorating my son's room, purging stuff we don't use anymore...feels so good!!)


• Seeing the new Harry Potter Movie...been looking forward to it for a while now


• Taking lots of pictures; now I need to start getting them scrapbooked
  

I haven't had much time in the studio these days. Things have been super busy with the kiddos home, but I'm hoping to finish up a few pieces that are almost complete. I also want to try some smaller "quick and easy" paintings; I've really been itching to get out my watercolors! I really hope to have some new art to post very soon!! :)

In the meantime...here is one of my favorite summertime songs...